


insanity genetic

by chozenone



Category: The Outsiders - All Media Types, The Outsiders - S. E. Hinton
Genre: False Accusations, M/M, Paranoia, darry is just fucking looney, the rags make it sound more dramatic than it is.
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-12
Updated: 2021-02-12
Packaged: 2021-03-12 03:27:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29378511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chozenone/pseuds/chozenone
Summary: Of all the kids to hang out with in Tulsa, why did Shepard have to choose Darry’s little brother...
Relationships: Darrel Curtis & Ponyboy Curtis, Ponyboy Curtis/Curly Shepard
Comments: 4
Kudos: 32





	insanity genetic

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this months ago

insanity genetic

  
  
  


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Darry heard about this thing on TV one time. “Insanity genetic” is what they called it. There was some old, desperate-looking square doctor guy explaining how mental illness can be passed down from generation to generation, basically making the family a bunch of nutcases. It was one family he knew in particular that met this criteria — The Shepard’s.

Darry didn’t like the Shepard’s. Not one bit.

Tim was a notorious hood. Low-down, always fighting someone and something, and always getting locked up. He was damn near the splitting image of Dallas Winston. And Darry’s seen how that ends. That Angela girl seemed to have a reputation herself, but Darry only knew of her when Ponyboy explained that night she tried to get some boy toy of hers to beat him up and almost got one of Pony’s friends killed. So yeah, he wasn’t exactly crazy about her either. But it was the middle one — Curly Shepard — that truly had Darry’s skin crawling.

That kid is _trouble._ Bottom line. It’s damn near a million things Darry can list about what’s wrong with that boy. He looks and acts like some feral raccoon, he’s always fighting, he’s always stealing, he’s always getting locked up, he listens to The Monkees, his real name ain’t even Curly. Darry could go on all night. None of that was even the worse part. What was truly wretched about that Curly boy was that of _all_ the kids in Tulsa he decided to be best pals with his kid brother.

Ponyboy’s always had greaser friends who like to get into stupid shit. Hell, two of them _died_ last year. Darry used to be fifteen, he gets it, but everything’s different now. Their parents aren’t around, he’s twenty with no college degree looking over two teenage boys and the state breathing down his neck 24/7. It takes _one_ mistake for shit to hit the fan and Curly Shepard will be that mistake. Pony already hardly uses that big brain of his (lord knows why) and gets into tomfoolery, just imagine the shit that’ll go on with that Shepard boy filling his head with ideas.

Lord, it’s tough. It really is. Despite all of this, Darry doesn’t forbid Pony from hanging out with that boy because one — he doesn’t feel like dealing with Tim. And two — he trusts Ponyboy, but it doesn’t mean he ain’t worrying. That someday there’ll be some cop showing up at his door saying Pony got arrested and now him and Soda are getting their marching orders in the system. It’s tough.

He just hopes his kid brother will make the right decisions.

  
  
  


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Ponyboy isn’t home from school yet.

Darry has no worries. Pony already explained to him this morning that he wouldn’t be home right after school because he was working on a project with a friend. That friend being Curly Shepard.

Darry has one worry.

It’s times like this when Darry curses his kid brother for being so damn smart he skipped a grade and ended up being in the same grade as that Shepard kid. Probably ain’t even a project, they just wanted to fuck around in the streets — no, wait. Darry’s being too hard. He shouldn’t be worried one bit. Pony takes his schoolwork seriously so if he says he’s doing a project for school then he’s doing a project for school. No worries. Absolutely.

Darry walked over to the fridge, opening it to see a few Bud Lights, ingredients for chocolate cake, peanut butter and jelly, and that molding bread they keep forgetting to throw out. Ah, damn it.. He forgot to buy groceries for dinner.

Pony’s not home yet and Soda’s still working, so Darry figures he has time for a quick stop. He grabbed his keys from the table, walked out, and got in his truck, whistling all the way. The moment he backs out of the driveway he gets to thinking about what he should make tonight.

Pork and beans? _Old Lady Esther walking along the sidewalk._ No, he made that last week. Mashed potatoes and green beans? _Kids playing hopscotch at the park._ No, Soda’ll try and put jelly on them. Baked chicken? Two boys spray painting the side of a building. No, Pony doesn’t like— wait. Speaking of Pony, that’s exactly who Darry sees spraying the wall. And Curly Shepard is right next to him.

Darry almost causes a 4-car pileup when he turns into the alley way. He parks, he unlocks his seat belt, he gets out, and he does _not_ miss a beat.

“Ponyboy Michael Curtis, I should skin you alive.” Darry barks, yanking the can from Pony’s oddly warm hand. “Just what in the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“Darry, we were just—“

“Shut it! I don’t wanna hear excuses!”

Curly steps forward looking unphased. “Listen, Muscle Man, we-“

“You shut your goddamn mouth Shepard cause I know you put him up to this.” Darry growls. Immediately Curly steps back, so he turns his attention back to Pony. “Now, Pony, you know better than this crap. If the cops found out you were vandalizin’ I swear—“

“Darry!” Ponyboy yells. “We’re doing an art project.”

Darry furrows his eyebrows. “Huh?”

“Remember I told you I was doing a project?” Pony points towards something.

Darry turns around and sees a white canvas with blue and red paint smeared all over. He turned back around.

“Oh. An art project.” Would’ve been nice to clarify.

Curly _bravely_ decided to speak again. “Mr. Kim is letting us use the wall of his store hang up our stuff.”

Darry turns around and sees a short, hairy asian man standing in the distance waving awkwardly at them. He gives a small wave and smiles back.

“Well.” Darry rubbed his neck, burning a hot red. “It was an honest mistake.”

Ponyboy frowned, but didn’t say nothing.

“Just, uh, be home by 6. Okay? Keep up the good work.”

“Yeah. Bye.”

“Bye.” Darry said quietly. He gave Shepard a small nod before heading back to his car and heading back home.

They had leftover chocolate cake for dinner that night.

  
  
  


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Pony is out late with the Shepard boy.

Darry lets him. It’s Friday, Pony’s already eaten his dinner (sardine casserole, a recipe Darry got from Nana Curtis), washed the dishes, and he wants to make up for embarrassing his kid brother those few days ago. Still, Darry eyes are flickering between the front door and the phone.

Soda’s laying on the couch moaning and groaning something fierce. Overcome with some sudden sickness. Steve’s there with him (because he’s always with Soda) sitting on the arm and checking on him while watching TV.

Darry gets up to get him some medicine but then the door busts wide open. It was Curly Shepard with his arm swung around a _very_ white Ponyboy. Darry almost trips over a vase running over there.

“Pony, what in the hell happened?”

“Humma… humma…” He was staggering around, even more clumsy than usual. Darry wrinkled his nose at the smell that appeared when Pony spoke. Kid’s breath reeked. He looked over to Curly and saw him holding some strange clear bottle. Oh shit… it all made sense now.

“Ya’ll were drinking weren’t you?” Darry snapped, snatching the bottle from a Curly’s hand and glaring at it.

Curly put his hands up in protest, but slung them back over Pony when Pony almost toppled over the front porch. “No, it’s just water!” He said.

“Bullcrap. I know vodka when I see it.”

“No, I’m tellin’ the truth, it’s water! He said he felt sick so I gave him some, but he’s still feelin’ shitty.”

If that boy wasn’t currently holding his kid brother on his feet Darry thinks he would’ve knocked his teeth in. “Shepard, do you think I was born yesterday? Pony, I should knock your ass all the way into next week! What if the cops saw ya’ll—“ Darry doesn’t have time to finish his lecture when Ponyboy jolts free from Curly’s grasp and runs straight out the living room. Always showing off those track skills. Soon, there’s some unpleasant sounds coming from the bathroom.

Darry turned to Curly, who had the nerve to look amused by this. “You think this is funny?”

Curly stifled a laugh. “A little bit.”

“I’ll show you somethin’ funny—“

Suddenly, Soda yelps and jumps up, running outside. Moments later, there’s unpleasant sounds coming from their yard.

Curly wrinkles his nose, taking a few sniffs, then looks past Darry into the kitchen. “What the fuck Are those sardines?”

Darry poked a finger in his chest. “Don’t change the subject.”

Curly sniffs again. “Yeah, it is. That’s exactly what Pony’s breath smelled like. Even the gum I gave him couldn’t drown it.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “It reeks.”

Before Darry could do something he might regret, Steve walks up to them.

“Hey Superman, the kid might be right. I think that’s why Soda’s, y’know...” He points towards the window where everyone could happily watch Soda empty the contents of his dinner on the hedges outside.

Darry shares a glance between Steve, then Curly, then the bottle he took from Curly. He gives it one good look then takes a swig.

Huh. Plain ol’ water.

He gives Curly the bottle back, which Curly takes slowly.

“Well, I’ll just leave y’all be tonight.” Curly drawls before closing the door rather quickly.

“Christ.” Steve said. “Glad I ate before I came here.”

Darry would sock him if it weren’t for the rumbling in his stomach.

  
  
  


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Darry takes out his wallet and it feels awfully light in his palm. Money’s missing.

Payday was two days ago and when you have a family of two teen boys (add two more), you make sure to never miss it. It’s strange.

What’s even stranger is the stuff Darry starts to notice on Ponyboy’s side of his and Soda’s room. A new watch. New shoes. New sketchbook. Even a new leather jacket. Darry felt it. That was genuine cow hide.

The kid’s been acting strange as a whole lately. He’s always asking to go out to the lot, or the park, or some place (it’s always changing) after school and Darry’s trying to be happy because the kid’s finally acting normal again after what happened last year, but Darry isn’t stupid. Ponyboy wasn’t even that social when everything was normal. Something’s up. But to be fair, Pony hasn’t mentioned that Shepard boy’s name in a while, so Darry lets it go. Maybe the kid finally used his head for once and found friends with a lick of common sense.

One day, he’s driving home from work. It was a long day, his boss was in a bad mood, and he almost decked one of his employees over a crude joke. Instead of dinner, he might just take the boys to McDonald’s and shut them up.

He always drives past the lot in their neighborhood right before getting home. Usually, he’ll look out the window and see some kids playing football or horsing around.

Not this time.

Darry looks out and sees a bunch of boys hunched around. About five or six. All high school aged. He’s never really had an eagle’s eye but he can make out the boys rolling dice around. He can also make out that Pony is one of those boys. Even worse, another one of those boys is Shepard.

Darry almost flips the car over during his U-Turn.

What happens in the next few minutes is kind of a blur. There’s some cursing, some kids running, a threat to Shepard about “not wanting to catch a case and beat your ass.” but now Ponyboy’s in the passenger seat pouting like he did when he was ten, even looking ten. Darry would smile if, well…

“What the hell, Darry!”

Darry keeps his eyes on the road, his knuckles turning ghost white around the steering wheel. “Good Lord Almighty, are you serious, kid? Gambling?”

“We weren’t gambling, we were playin’ Monopoly!”

Darry sneers. “In the lot?”

“Nobody else’s folks were home and neither were you!”

“Yeah, and I’m Lyndon B. Johnson.”

Pony doesn’t respond. He sighs and looks out the window, but Darry isn’t finished.

“This explains it.” Darry says. “This explains why I got money missin’ from my wallet.”

Pony jolted up, his green eyes going wide. “What?”

They were in the driveway by now, but Darry still didn’t look at him. “Yeah. It’s funny how I got money missin’ and you’re gettin’ all this new fancy shit.” He gestures towards that oh, so real leather jacket Ponyboy was wearing right now.

Something seemed to wash over Ponyboy’s face. “Dar, are you really accusin’ me of stealing from you?”

“If the shoe fits.”

“Curly gave me that stuff!” Ponyboy retorted.

Darry snorts. “Yeah, the damn gangster probably stole it.”

Ponyboy doesn’t respond, instead glaring at him one last time before storming out the truck and into the house. Darry sighs, getting out as well. Lord, he didn’t know how the hell he was gonna deal with this kid. The minute he enters the door, he’s greeted by a bright smile from Sodapop.

“Hey, Dar.” He says. “This came in the mail today.” He gives Darry an envelope, which Darry inspects with confusion.

“What’s this?”

“Your paycheck.” Sodapop explains. “Apparently got mixed in with some other guy’s mail and was supposed to come a couple days ago.”

Darry looks over to the hallway where Ponyboy already shut the door to his room.

It was an honest mistake...

**Author's Note:**

> thanks 4 reading catch me @randlewrld on tumblr as always xx


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